TouchPad and Veer make "worst-named" gadgets list, feel even more misunderstood

We're the types to vigorously defend webOS at the drop of a hat. But we'll also admit our favorite mobile OS has its faults, though we love it overall. What we never really fell in love with was any of the marketing done by Palm or HP, and there are plenty of decisions made along the way by both entities that we can't vigorously defend. But sometimes some arguments just make us throw our hands in the air and shout "So the @#$& what?"

Case in point, a recent list put together by MSNBC.com's Gadgetbox blog, listing the 20 worst-named phones and tablets. Both the HP Veer and HP TouchPad made it onto that ignominious list sharing space with a series of other poorly-selling devices, like the LG Lucid, Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700, and the Samsung Brightside, which we would like to point out is not even a smartphone. Also on the list is "the new iPad", which is just the iPad, or the third-generation iPad (i.e. the new one) and the Samsung Galaxy S II, Sprint Epic 4G Touch (from which Gadgetbox left out the comma and Sprint, making it an even worse name). Not on the list? The Palm Pixi. Seriously, TouchPad and Veer are a zillion times better names than that.

Also not on the list was a reason for the list to exist. We're not ragging on the list for including the TouchPad and Veer (and not the Pixi, which is seriously deserving of inclusion on such a list), but we have to wonder why anybody would put together such a list in the first place. The name is a massively small part of the device experience. Remember when the iPad was first announced and all of the juvenile feminine product jokes that followed (and still linger to this day)? A pad is also a piece of paper! You never saw Captain Picard snicker when he picked up a PADD from his ready room desk on the Starship Enterprise, did you? Nope, and Apple has sold well over 70 million iPads to date.

It doesn't come down to a name and snarky comments about confusing the TouchPad with a peripheral (or getting wrong how many days passed between launch and cancellation - 49). It's about the overall experience, the desirability, the marketing, the apps - the physical device, for Ruby's sake! There are plenty of marks where HP missed with the TouchPad, but we wouldn't say it or the Veer are worthy of inclusion on a list with devices like the HP iPaq Glisten (three slots for HP, best only by Samsung's 5) and eMatic eGlide XL Pro.

Sure, TouchPad and Veer aren't the best names in the world, but they're certainly not the worst. But don't feel bad - HP would have been guaranteed slots if they'd gone with names like Myte or TouchCanvas.